Paramount Studios had bankable cartoon stars in 1960 but wanted more. Many of their cartoons from early in the decade featured one-shot characters awaiting a big break – which never came. The situation caused consternation among Paramount execs, who wanted a hot new star to raise the studio’s esteem and profits.
One-shot cartoons launched with high hopes included Goodie the Gremlin, a living baseball named Abner, and Kozmo, a Martian child. The studio did produce a cartoon that lasted for twenty episodes, Swifty and Shorty, based on the comedy routines of Eddie Lawrence, but it was neither a critical nor commercial success. And then there was The Cat.
The Cat starred in four cartoons from 1960-1961 before disappearing into obscurity. Why didn’t this short-lived series become Paramount’s hoped-for hit? Consistency and continuity were major issues.
For one, Director Seymour Kneitel had significant cardiac problems (he would pass away in 1964). Spread across too many Paramount cartoons from 1960-61, he had co-directors for every film in the release schedule. Kneitel had two different ones over four Cat cartoons (Irv Spector helped with three of them).
The Cat himself had three different voice artists, never having a consistent tone. Some histories suggest that Bob Mc Fadden voiced the character, but the studio record indicates that Dayton Allen, Jack Mercer, and a Paramount studio player named Will Jordan played The Cat. Sometimes the character sounded like Rex Harrison, at other times like Cary Grant, but never like “himself” in the way a Mel Blanc character might.
The Cat
The first cartoon, Top Cat, written by Irv Spector, was released in July 1960. In that cartoon, producer J. Caeser Bandwagon of Blocbuster (sic) Pictures is hunting for new stars and loses his hat, which The Cat picks up. He gives the producer a spirited rendition of “When You’re Wearing the Right Kind of Hat” (including impersonations of celebrities and historical figures). JCB whisks The Cat away to stardom.
The cartoon’s snappy musical number (written by Winston Sharples) was well done, but little else was. Top Cat lists four animators: Isadore Klein, George Cannata, Jack Ehret, and Morey Reden, and it’s difficult to see why the cartoon needed more than one. Simplistic character depictions, limited and reused animation, and background artist Robert Owen’s estimation of early-period UPA set design leave a limp impression.
Top Cat was submitted to the Academy Awards as a nomination for Best Animated Short in a field of 15 contenders. (It did not make the shortlist; the Award went to Munro, another Paramount release).
The second cartoon, Cool Cat Blues, was released after a six-month lapse in January 1961. The Cat is a private eye hired as the bodyguard to P.B.Q. Network’s Ed Solvent, a caricature of Ed Sullivan. The frozen Solvent is kidnapped by I.O.U network, but before Sadie the sexy strangler can incapacitate The Cat, the clever detective substitutes a wax figure of the entertainer.
This short showed somewhat more sophistication in the animation, possibly because William Pattengill and Gerry Dvorak were on board. The Cat, this time voiced by Will Jordan, is a meatier character. The cartoon apes a noir film, lending it a more complicated plot (which includes several hoods shot to death!) Ed Sullivan’s stone-faced nature is caricatured with less success.
The Cat’s third outing did not premier until August 1961, after another six-month hiatus. Bopin’ Hood had The Cat and his trio of jazz musicians come to Ye Olde Squaresville, where the violin-playing king has banned jazz music, much to the regret of the princess and the people. When The Cat saves the king from his incompetent guards, jazz becomes the official music of the kingdom.
Jack Mercer now voices The Cat, and Robert Owen abandons his UPA-influenced style for a softer look, but the animation dooms what might have been a better cartoon. Irv Spector, Jack Ehret, and John Gentilella animate in a flat style that features mostly character profiles and a rare full-face, without even an occasional three-quarter visual. There is a laugh when the princess transforms into a beatnik, but not anywhere else.
The series’ final cartoon, Cane and Able, released in October of 1961, was much brighter. Animators Irving Dressler and Larry Silverman now joined Irv Spector, and Dayton Allen was back as The Cat. Jackson Beck voiced the villain Honest Ace Palmer and the narrator. The story was a parody of the 1958 TV Western “Bat Masterson,” with The Cat in the Gene Barry role.
Most of the short consists of a rigged poker game, in which we learn that The Cat’s cane has almost mystical powers. When Honest Ace Palmer employs showgirl Lilly Belle to get the cane (in a nifty singing performance by Corrine Orr), the theft backfires and The Cat and his cane triumph.
And for The Cat, that was the end. In 1964, Seymour Kneitel would pass away – and the world would never see another Cat cartoon.
Could anything have lifted The Cat to stardom? By 1961, there were possibly no resources, budgets, or talent at Paramount that could have done it. The old hands who worked on the series, had been part of the 1930-1940 Fleischer studio, and were nearing the end of long careers. The theatrical cartoon was dying, and animation fans were turning to the newer TV cartoons pioneered by Hanna-Barbera. While The Cat was at times an appealing character, there was no fertile ground to launch him from.
